


Warm

by animeangelriku



Series: Puzzleshipping Advent [8]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Insomnia, Light Angst, M/M, Morning Cuddles, Sleepy Cuddles, it's one sentence only i think, like SUPER light angst seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 10:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12957225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animeangelriku/pseuds/animeangelriku
Summary: When Atem can't sleep, he likes walking around the city to clear his thoughts. Fortunately, when he gets back, Yugi receives him with cuddles and hair-petting.





	Warm

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit more Atem-centric, just because I wanted to delve into one of my headcanons for him, but it turns into “cute puzzlenerds cuddling” at the end, so I think it’s worth it. Based on [this prompt](http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/121013041235/person-a-is-in-bed-reading-a-book-person-b-enters) from the Tumblr blog, [otpprompts](http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> You can also read this on my [Tumblr](http://animeangelriku.tumblr.com/post/168345167217/puzzleshipping-warm)!

Atem _hates_ having insomnia. 

Lately, it’s gotten slightly better. He still has the occasional nightmare or just a really weird dream that will wake him up before the sun even rises, and more often than not, Yugi will also wake up and wrap his arms around him and soothe him right back to sleep. Nowadays, he’s usually able to sleep through the whole night.

But every now and then, Atem will be startled awake for one reason or another, and he’ll fail to return to his slumber, no matter how much and for how long he tries. 

It’s in these occasions that Atem’s only option left is to get out of bed, leave a note for Yugi, and go out for a walk through the streets of Domino City. 

Sleeping was… a daily—or nightly—struggle, at first. Atem had had no need for sleep as a wandering soul trapped inside the Millennium Puzzle. The passage of time was not the same as it was out in the “real world,” and when he wasn’t aimlessly traversing the corridors of the puzzle’s infinite maze, he watched over Yugi as he slept, or he thought about his lost past, or he would simply project himself at Yugi’s desk to watch the night shift into the day. He wasn’t _used_ to sleeping because he hadn’t _needed_ to before, and yet his body would demand he rested even as his mind was still racing.

Atem shudders. Despite how accustomed he was to live inside the Millennium Puzzle—if what he was doing could even be called _living_ —he would never willingly go back to it. He never wants to go back to the maze and the thousand doors and the solitude and the coldness and the _darkness_ —

He shakes his head and presses his hands flat against his temples, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth. 

Atem _hates_ having insomnia, but he’ll gladly deal with it if it means he can be here, in Domino City, with the people he loves and cares about. 

Besides, he likes walking around the city, especially when most of its inhabitants are still sleeping or starting to get ready for the day. 

He likes walking by places he already knows: sometimes he’ll go to the docks, or he’ll walk past what remains of the Black Clown after the fire, or he’ll go to the town plaza and just watch the clock as it ticks by, trying not to let his memories overwhelm him. 

Then he likes following paths he and Yugi have taken during the last few months, visiting places that are significant to him, places that he holds dear in his heart: the store he and Yugi were walking by when they held hands for the first time, the street where Yugi kissed him for the first time, the arcade they went to on their first date, the park where Yugi gathered all of their friends to announce Atem was back, where they all hung out together for the first time after he returned…

These places make him smile to himself. They ease his racing mind and they make his body relax and loosen and they help him breathe a little more easily. 

His phone buzzes in his pocket, and Atem pulls it out to see a text message from Yugi.

_Are you okay?_

Atem smiles tiredly. 

_Yeah,_ he texts back. _I’m on my way back now._

He pockets his phone again and turns around to head back home. He could really do with some sleeping now. 

*

When Atem steps inside Yugi’s room, Yugi is lying down on his bed, face-up and reading the book he holds in his hands. He must be studying, because he doesn’t lift his eyes from his book. What he does do is raise his arms, still holding his book, and that’s all the invitation Atem needs. He practically drags his feet towards the bed, and then he collapses on top of Yugi, his arms wrapped around him and using his chest as a pillow.

“Good morning,” Yugi mumbles, and one of his hands comes down to pet Atem’s hair. 

“Morning,” Atem tries to say, but he gets interrupted mid-word by a yawn. 

Yugi smiles, his eyes still fixated on his book. “Where did you go today?” 

Atem takes a deep breath and then lets it all out in a sigh. “Nowhere, really,” he answers. “Just… walked around, mostly.” He yawns again, and he feels Yugi’s chest rumble with his laugh.

“Tired?” Yugi asks, and Atem can only nod. “You can take a nap on me, if you want.”

Atem makes an affirmative noise in response, but he’s so tired that he doesn’t even know if he actually _made_ any noise at all. Yugi seems to understand, though, because he leans down to kiss the top of Atem’s head, and Atem tightens his arms around him, just a little. 

He closes his eyes and listens to the beat of Yugi’s heart beneath his ear, feels it pounding against Yugi’s chest, and it’s the most beautiful sound in the world. Atem focuses on the way Yugi’s chest and stomach—which he is currently using as his own personal pillow and bed—rise and fall in sync with his breaths, and he could stay here forever if he was allowed to do so because Yugi is just so warm underneath him, and there’s nothing that makes Atem feel calmer than knowing that Yugi is safe. That they’re both safe, that their friends and family are safe, that he can take a nap on top of Yugi and the world will not collapse underneath them. 

With Yugi’s hand petting his hair and his own arms secured around Yugi’s chest, Atem falls back asleep.


End file.
